Never crossed my mind, but haven't had any pests either. I'm also determined to keep any kind of chems out of my garden
Grow Mediums Distilled Water
- Thread starter eggmansky
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Never crossed my mind, but haven't had any pests either. I'm also determined to keep any kind of chems out of my garden
what you talking bout.I don't spray my plants.I spray my baseboard.along with 21 million other people.it's made for indoor use.
A few thoughts on this. It will depend on the quality of your tap water. Tap water varies greatly from place to place.
Distilled or RO PH becomes very unstable when adding anything basic or acidic, as you have discovered. Try adjusting the PH of very hard water(High PPM). It takes teaspoons rather than drops of PH solution. Then try adjusting the PH of distilled water. It's very tricky.
The less contaminates, chemicals, Ph up and down and dissolved solids you have in your water the better for the plant. If you live in an area with PPM of 400-700 out of the tap then you will have some very messed up and sickly plants. No amount of CalMag or nutes will be able to save them. They will exhibit extreme CALMag deficiency. If you only used pure water then you would need CalMag.
Here is the solution. It's best if you know the PPM of your tap water. To stabilize PH and add in CalMag many growers add some tap water to their RO water. A mixture of around 25% tap will normally be good. This is what I use to get to 150 ppm before nutes.
Remember that your nutes are PH buffered. so all the worry about PH, especially in soil is unnecessary. Your soil will more likely change the PH of the water before the water changes the PH of the soil. This is why it's important to start with quality soil.
If it were me and I was growing in soil I'd start with RO water mixed with 25% Tap water and a PH of 7. Then add nutes and CalMag. No additional PH needed. Adding Dolomite Lime to the soil mix seems to be an acceptable way of stabilizing soil PH.
Only after I bought a PPM meter did I understand why my last grow looked like this even though I was adding CalMag to the tap water I was using.. Currently I am using 25% tap 75% RO and this grow is going much better.
Decent PPM pens cost around $20 bucks on Amazon. It's important to know the PPM of your tap water and it can change with the seasons so it's not a bad idea to check a few times a year.
Distilled or RO PH becomes very unstable when adding anything basic or acidic, as you have discovered. Try adjusting the PH of very hard water(High PPM). It takes teaspoons rather than drops of PH solution. Then try adjusting the PH of distilled water. It's very tricky.
The less contaminates, chemicals, Ph up and down and dissolved solids you have in your water the better for the plant. If you live in an area with PPM of 400-700 out of the tap then you will have some very messed up and sickly plants. No amount of CalMag or nutes will be able to save them. They will exhibit extreme CALMag deficiency. If you only used pure water then you would need CalMag.
Here is the solution. It's best if you know the PPM of your tap water. To stabilize PH and add in CalMag many growers add some tap water to their RO water. A mixture of around 25% tap will normally be good. This is what I use to get to 150 ppm before nutes.
Remember that your nutes are PH buffered. so all the worry about PH, especially in soil is unnecessary. Your soil will more likely change the PH of the water before the water changes the PH of the soil. This is why it's important to start with quality soil.
If it were me and I was growing in soil I'd start with RO water mixed with 25% Tap water and a PH of 7. Then add nutes and CalMag. No additional PH needed. Adding Dolomite Lime to the soil mix seems to be an acceptable way of stabilizing soil PH.
Only after I bought a PPM meter did I understand why my last grow looked like this even though I was adding CalMag to the tap water I was using.. Currently I am using 25% tap 75% RO and this grow is going much better.
Decent PPM pens cost around $20 bucks on Amazon. It's important to know the PPM of your tap water and it can change with the seasons so it's not a bad idea to check a few times a year.
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gmgeoff
somewhat known member
I agree. I am using about the same ratio myself. I started using only R/O the start of my grow(15 gal.hydro). I was still needing to add a little ph down periodically. Now almost the end of the grow, the ph continually trends down. I didn't want to start using an up chem. so I started blending in my good well water to pull it up to the upper 5's.
if I were in soil the well water would be OK....PPM only 125.
My well ph also changed. A year ago it was 7.5. Now it's 7.
I'd be very careful, really, and 21 million people aren't smoking weed thats been exposed to the stuff! No pest strips are a no no in a growroom, totally. Your not suppose to use them in a small closed space, your exposing yourself and your plants to toxic vapors. So whatever you do, just be careful, better safe than sorry!
Peace
Pop :Sharing One:
I got ya bro.I only use no pest strips in bully barn with fox farm soil.lol I set my soil with no pest strips in there for 2 wks while my lime activates in my soil.and when I home defense my house my plants stay the day in the garage. So if plant can breathe fumes and you smoke plant you get sick. Then how come when they take molybdenum ,which is poisonous in certain amounts.which is taken in at pH 7 or above in soil.then people with low pH soil gonna get sick because molybdenum still in plant. You sure your right? Not trying to be an ass.just kinda shitty to hear someone call out your buds on being poisonous.especially faded
hello,
Interesting discussion. This is hydro section but soil growers like me have same problems.
Does anyone knows if mixing 460 μS/cm (should be around 230ppm) tap water with RO in 1:1 ratio means that the mix will show 115 ppm - 0,23 EC ?
My RO has ph @6,3 and only 8% of tap water makes it to go up to 7. Tap is around 7,7 now. Rising after winter is gone.
I use AN in soil and using tap water and using RO with them was disaster. I am somehow looking for sweet spot in RO/tap mix but have no idea what it would be.
Interesting discussion. This is hydro section but soil growers like me have same problems.
Does anyone knows if mixing 460 μS/cm (should be around 230ppm) tap water with RO in 1:1 ratio means that the mix will show 115 ppm - 0,23 EC ?
My RO has ph @6,3 and only 8% of tap water makes it to go up to 7. Tap is around 7,7 now. Rising after winter is gone.
I use AN in soil and using tap water and using RO with them was disaster. I am somehow looking for sweet spot in RO/tap mix but have no idea what it would be.
I agree that tap water quality is a factor. Another factor is your nutes. With distilled or RO water my canna nutes buffer pH very well and it stays stable. When I use my filtered or unfiltered tap water the buffering is much less effective and pH goes up and down noticeably (usually up).
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